Posts in the “latex” category

I’m currently writing my new book, Functional Programming, Simplified (Updated for Scala 3) directly in LaTeX, and this is my “LaTeX cheatsheet” that I keep open all the time so I can copy and paste the LaTeX stuff I need while I write.

Note that I don’t use any LaTeX formula stuff, so most of this is pretty basic LaTeX stuff, though there are a few custom commands/functions that probably won’t make sense to anyone unless I share some more details.

Here’s my current LaTeX cheatsheet:

Here’s a sample LaTeX document where I’m experimenting with newenvironment, a definition list, and tables (the tabular environment. I don't have the output with me at the moment, but I think all of these worked correctly when using pdflatex (LaTeX PDF) and latex2html (LaTeX HTML):

LaTeX table/figure FAQ - How do I reference a table or figure in a LaTeX document?

Being able to automatically reference a figure within a LaTeX document is a very cool thing. This referencing capability lets you easily give readers the exact number of a figure, or tell them what page number a figure is located on with the use of a few simple commands (\label, \ref, and \pageref). The same technique works for referencing other objects within a LaTeX document, including tables and equations.

LaTeX FAQ: "How do I use font colors in LaTeX?"

Defining and using font colors in LaTeX documents turns out to be pretty easy, and it's a great LaTeX feature. Although my choice of colors may leave something to be desired, this example requirements specification was written with LaTeX, and converted to HTML using the latex2html conversion program.

(A really cool thing is that I also generated a LaTeX PDF version of that same requirements specification from the same LaTeX source files. Being able to create a LaTeX HTML document and a LaTeX PDF document from the same LaTeX source is really a terrific feature for technical specifications like this. (Not to mention that you can also keep all your LaTeX source files in a version control system, like CVS or SVN.))

I've written a lot of use case documents lately for software requirements specifications, and as use cases get more complex, I find the need for "sub use cases" or "alternate scenarios". When referring to these from the main use case (or anywhere else), it's nice to be able to use LaTeX's reference capability.

The LaTeX reference capability lets you refer to one part of a document from another part of the same LaTeX document, and I've found it to be really powerful when creating both PDF and HTML documents from LaTeX code (i.e., LaTeX PDF and LaTeX HTML documents).

LaTeX line spacing FAQ: How can I control the line spacing in itemize and enumerate tags?

What I did was to create my own LaTeX command, and then use that command instead of the traditional enumerate tag. (This works just as well for the itemize tag.)

The LaTeX example below shows how to create your own command named packed_enum. After you define this command, just use it instead of enumerate or itemize, and your line spacing will essentially be reduced to single line spacing.

I often have a need to create LaTeX comments that span multiple lines. Of course you can create single line comments in LaTeX using the percent character like this:

% this is a comment

But I want to be able to create LaTeX comments that go on for multiple lines. Fortunately, if you know that you're supposed to include the verbatim package, this is pretty easy.

LaTeX multiline comments example

The first step is to include the verbatim package, like this:

Sometimes I think working with LaTeX is like sitting at the controls of the Nebuchadnezzar in The Matrix.

The crazy sed script below is my first attempt at a script that will convert as much HTML as possible to LaTeX. For my purposes I'm mostly interested in tables, lists, buttons, and comboboxes, but I included a few other things as well.

This is in an extremely experimental state, and is included here as much for backup purposes and sharing as anything else.

Here's how you run the sed script on an HTML file named test.html:

sed -f html2latex.sed test.html > test.tex

That being said, here's the current source code for the html2latex.sed file:

The ability to create notes in the margin (also referred to as "margin notes" or "marginal notes") is a really nice/cool feature in LaTeX. In the words of Edward Tufte, it lets you keep your notes near your content, which is a good thing.

Creating the margin notes themselves is very easy. Here's how to create a margin note with the LaTeX \marginpar command:

\marginpar{This note will appear in the margin.}

LaTeX question: Can you show a simple example of creating your own LaTeX command?

Here is an example LaTeX file where I'm experimenting with various newcommand and renewcommand capabilities. The file actually contains six LaTeX examples, and in each step I add one more LaTeX feature that is a little harder than the previous step.

Wow, this was a tough LaTeX problem, and it would really help if I knew a lot more about LaTeX.

My goal for a LaTeX PDF that I created recently was to get the header of my pages to look something like this:

Section Name (Chapter Name)

where "Section Name" and "Chapter Name" are left-aligned in the header of the page, and would be dynamically replaced by the actual values of the current section and chapter names, respetively.

I'm not sure this is *the* reference, but here's a Latex help file that helps:

• http://www.emerson.emory.edu/services/latex/latex_toc.html

There's also a Postscript version available on the site for easier printing.

Here are a few others with different formatting styles, including some duplicates:

Here's a URL to a decent LaTeX FAQ site.

Here is some example LaTeX code where I'm experimenting with image inclusion, as well as tags like htmlonly, latexonly, and the alltt environment.

This LaTeX example/test file was created for tests with the pdflatex (LaTeX PDF) and latex2html (LaTeX HTML) utilities. This is definitely not for newbies.

Summary: Use the LaTeX soul package to highlight text in a LaTeX document.

Suppose you want to provide a highlight color or background color for text in a LaTeX document. A good example is when you want to highlight the background yellow, so it looks like it was highlighted with a marker, to catch a reader's attention. "How do you do this in LaTeX?" you ask.

Normally I like to answer "simple", but in this case there is a multi-step answer. It's still pretty easy, but you'll need to download a package named "soul".

LaTeX FAQ: How can I prevent line breaks from occurring in my LaTeX documents?

Another nice thing about LaTeX is that you can prevent line breaks between words that should not be broken, things like people's names. To prevent a line break from occurring, use the tilde character (~) instead of a space, like this:

Mr.~John~Doe

This keeps "Mr. John Doe" on the same line when your document is created.

LaTeX FAQ: What kinds of dashes and hyphens are available with LaTeX?

There are three types of dashes you can create with LaTeX:

LaTeX question: How do I create an "ellipsis" with LaTeX?

Very simple, if not intuitive. Wherever you want the ellipsis to appear in your LaTeX document (LaTeX PDF or LaTeX HTML document) use the "ldots" command, like this:

\ldots

LaTeX font question: How do I underline text in a LaTeX document?

This actually ends up being one of the easiest things to accomplish related to LaTeX font formatting. Its a little inconsistent from the LaTeX tags you use to create bold and italicized text, all you have to do is use the LaTeX \underline tag: